Kitchen renovation, part 8

Did we really finish the kitchen? I have no idea. I can say the official completion was around mid-September. Since then, I had to tinker a few things here and there that it feels like it’s still ongoing. Before getting into all those finer details, let’s back up to where I left off last on this blog.

Trim – the 3rd time is the charm

The kitchen has two entryways. One is connected to the dining room that has hardwood floor. The new kitchen has marmoleum. After two tries of putting down a trim to cover the transition, I think the third trim is going to do it. What’s wrong with the first two? The first one was too thick for such a high traffic area. I could really feel it under the shoes. I messed up the second one while I was attempting to install it with nails.

The third piece is real oak (not sure what the first two was made out of), matching the hardwood floor. It has pre-drilled holes and came with screws. The holes were not countersink enough to hide the screws with filler so I enlarged the countersink a little. Before putting it down on the floor, I put on a coat of polyurethane on the bottom of the trim and also the newly sanded transition area of the hardwood floor. In case of any major spill, those areas are a little bit protected.

Kitchen renovation, part 6

We started the kitchen renovation on July 18, 2009. Today is the first day of June. Can we finish before the one year mark? It’s doable I think, not impossible, considering all the little mishaps I created.

Oops, real Silicone caulk is forever!

I’ve lived in enough rentals plus my own bathrooms to have a huge dismay against moldy caulk. I was determined to find a mold-proof solution. It’s fairly simple actually. Get 100% Silicone caulk. Not the water clean up kind of Silicone Acrylic, that stuff gets moldy for sure.

When our backsplash was installed, the edges around the countertop were covered with Silicone Acrylic caulk. Since a portion of the backsplash is behind the sink, there will be a lot of exposure of water in that area. I decided to go over all the edges with 100% Silicone caulk. I got the GE kind sold at Home Depot with a 10-year mold free guarantee. It has to be the best stuff around, right?

Kitchen renovation, part 5

It’s been almost two months since I dropped a few words here about the renovation. It’s moving along slowly but other things in life pick up speed. Before then, my body set off an alarm to tell me to rest.

When your body betrayed you

Back in February, I woke up one day with a severe case of muscle spasm in the neck and right shoulder. I had this problem before but I was usually out of bed before noticing the problem. This time around, I opened my eyes from a full night of sleep and I immediately noticed I could not move. Any slight movement was painful. I could hear hubby cooking breakfast in the temporary kitchen we set up in the bedroom next door but I couldn’t yell loud enough to get his attention right away. When the cooking noise subsided, I called out to him and finally got the help I needed. It’s still not easy to get out of bed.

Kitchen renovation, part 3

It’s been more than two months since the last time I blogged about the kitchen remodel. Well, guess what? The IKEA cabinets took us two months to install!! And we only got the frames attached to the walls. No doors, drawers, or shelves yet. But if we add up the total amount of hours we spent on hanging cabinets, it won’t add up to two months. We did the work in the weekends only. And recently, hubby has started training with the local Search and Rescue which has an overnight outing in the woods in the weekend once a month.